This application is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 08/882,197, filed Jun. 25. 1997 now abandoned.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to customizing advertisements transmitted over a computer network. More particularly, the present invention relates to transmitting advertising banners and an agent over the Internet to a target computer and using information collected by the agent running on the target computer to generating new advertising banners.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, advertising and marketing over computer systems connected to the Internet have become increasingly popular. Many well-known Internet service providers display advertisements along with entertainment, financial and business information available from these services. As more advertisers compete for limited ad space, the cost of placing an ad on these services has become more expensive. Furthermore, the proliferation of advertisements makes it difficult to keep consumers interested in a particular vendor's advertisement. Keeping a consumer's attention such that the consumer remembers the advertisement poses a constant challenge for marketing personnel. Furthermore, the limited bandwidth of transmissions media and the expense of placing an advertisement in highly visible areas of the Internet makes it desirable to target specific audiences rather than transmit numerous broadcasts to all consumers.
It is thus desirable to customize and target advertisements to particular audiences more likely to be interested in the particular advertisement or to which the advertising particularly pertains. Thus, the following invention discloses a method and apparatus for obtaining consumer information and customizing or targeting advertising content to correspond to the received information.